Bulldogs President at Chabad
David Smorgon, the president of AFL side Western Bulldogs David Smorgon was the guest speaker at a Chabad of Melbourne CBD’s Guest Speakers Lunch and Learn Session.
David Smorgon and Rabbi Chaim Herzog
Smorgon arrived at the lunchtime meeting shortly after a news-making emergency Bulldogs meeting team of which resulted in the firing of long-time coach Rodney Eade just ahead of the season’s finals.
Smorgon spoke on “My Five Rules of Success” ,
Rabbi Chaim Herzog told J-Wire: “Je had the crowd enthralled and they just couldn’t stop asking questions.”
Younger members of the audience had fathers and grandfathers who had worked for the Smorgon Industries when they first arrived in Australia as immigrants, making Smorgon’s talk very personal.
David Smorgon told the meeting that he had spent 25 years as a senior executive and Director of Smorgon Consolidated Industries, one of Australia’s largest family companies.
In 1995, the company announced a staged divestment of all its business interests resulting in David Smorgon establishing his own investment company, Generation Investments Pty. Ltd.
The insights and experiences Smorgon gained through working in the family business led to his becoming the inaugural chairman in 1997 of Family Business Australia, a position he held for five years.
David Smorgon told the lunchtime meeting his Five Rules of Success.
1) If you aim for the moon you might make the sky, keep trying.
2) Write things down in Black and White ( The Dream) Business Plan
3) Get the right people into the Organisation, the backbone people not the high flyers.
4) Hard work – No substitute for hard work and persistance, never give up.
5) Always back your own judgement
David was asked by someone in the audience what he thought about Jewish Education. He responded by saying that everyone should have some Jewish Education in order to guarantee continuity of the Jewish way of life. He added that Jewish Education should start in the home and that he was a traditional Jew who always kept the three main days in the Hebrew calendar.
He said: ” I know that I am a Jew and proud of it and never tried to hide it and even in Football I never experienced any Anti-Semitism.”
Rabbi Herzog added: “David davened with us and put on Tefillin, He left us with a feeling of hope for the future.”
